Various materials may need to be qualified for usage in a variety of industries including transportation and aerospace, among others. These materials can be tested within a material test system designed to perform a variety of operations including tension, compression, and/or bearing tests. Samples of these materials, referred to herein as coupons, are typically formed into specific shapes (e.g., rectangular or round shapes) that can be placed into a material test system and tested according to various testing specifications.
In order to test a coupon using a material test system, the coupon must be guided and supported by a fixture that both holds and stabilizes the coupon during the application of loads or other forces. Various gipping fixtures are used for these purposes. Conventional gripping fixtures typically include manually assembled devices, sometimes referred to as support fixtures, between which an operator places a coupon for testing. These fixtures are manually assembled outside of the test system (and test environment) and placed in the test system in an assembled state together with a coupon.
However, existing conventional fixtures are highly inefficient. In particular, many support fixtures require manual assembly and disassembly for each coupon to be tested. For test conditions that involve specific temperature and humidity levels, materials testing may be performed within an environmental chamber. Manual assembly and disassembly of the support fixtures typically disturbs environmental conditions because every time the environmental chamber is opened and the fixtures are removed from the environmental chamber, it takes time to reestablish the test conditions. Once the fixture is placed back into the environmental chamber, the desired conditions must be reestablished before testing can be performed on a particular coupon.
Because manual assembly and disassembly of a support fixture is required for testing of each coupon, this testing usually requires the full attention of a dedicated operator. Accordingly, manual assembly and disassembly is time consuming and labor intensive. If a batch of coupons is to be tested, significant time and resources must be devoted to such testing. For example, a testing cycle may take between 30-60 minutes for a single coupon. Consequently, it is desirable to provide improved mechanisms for performing testing on coupons.